The snooping habits of journalism, media and communication students: Teachers beware

Having been a student of mass communication and now a teacher of the same subject, one can’t help but be amazed by the level of curiosity that this discipline engenders in those who have been bitten by the bug of journalism, media and communication (JMC). My students, naturally and instinctively, scan my desk any time they come for consultation in my office and I suspect that they are on the lookout for news worthy items. You can search me for the outlet that will want to publish such boring stuff: because there are no sex, lies and videotapes here!
Telling them the story I picked up some time back to the effect that Americans train spies so that they can go spy on other countries on behalf of their principal; the moral being that we train journalists so that they can go snoop on others not us, their hapless teachers, does not seem to make too much of a difference. Old habits do, indeed, die hard.
I suppose the up side is that we as teachers are doing our job too well. It is said that the purpose of education would have been achieved if the attitudes and behaviours learnt under instruction continue after the instruction has seized. The snooping habit of our students starts from the time of instruction and develops horns and hoofs even before they graduate!
So, if you are a JMC educator, the moment you hear a knock on your office door and students walk in clear your desk immediately if you do not want to cry foul about invasion of privacy as their eyes rove all over thus detracting from the important discussion at hand. But, before they leave point them to government offices, the private sector etc as avenues for them to ply the trade you have taught them. Hopefully, one day, we shall overcome by getting them to snoop outside and not on us.
A parting shot: I have two words for governments, newsworthy persons and organizations seeing the level of monitoring/close marking that we JMC teachers are subjected to by our very own students – brace yourselves!